Page 45 of Alien in the Depths

She promised herself to be more careful, setting down the cover and the chisel with infinite care. Inside the panel, a series of wires connected to a small white card.

It looked almost exactly like the circuit boards she’d seen back in high school when her science teacher had taught a whole class on electronics. Nothing from that class had stuck in her mind, and for a second, she panicked, wondering if she was fooling herself.

But then, Elena’s enthusiasm came flooding back to her, along with the memories of the rainy afternoon her sister had shown her a circuit she’d been working on. Though she was lightyears away from Sofia on the topic, Elena had managed to explain things in a way that really did make it sound interesting, and Sofia picked up the pliers, hoping she’d absorbed enough of those lessons over the years.

The circuit board had a series of glyphs labeling different connections, but they were all in Rikuan and without her comm to translate, she was flying blindly. As her eyes scanned the characters, though, they stopped on something that looked familiar.

A series of three round symbols stuck out to her, and she realized she’d seen them before. In fact, she’d seen that exactcombination of glyphs in that exact order every single day since she’d been on Rikuus. It was the word that appeared every time she’d swiped open her hotel room door.

Opposite that was another symbol and she was sure she’d seen that one, too. It was the word that appeared on her hotel card reader once the door closed again.

An enormous grin spread over Sofia’s face as she marveled at her own luck.

Setting down the pliers again, and leaving the circuit board to hang loose at the wall, Sofia picked up the peg. She extracted the metal coil, bending the wire into a two-pronged shape. As she brought the wire up to the circuit board, willing her hand not to shake, she held her breath.

As carefully as she could, she held one prong to what she guessed was the power supply and the other to the glyphs for “open.”

The small click that rang through the laundry room almost made Sofia cry with relief. Instead, she let out the deep breath she’d been holding and made a mental note to give Elena an enormous hug when she got out of here.

As quickly as she could, she turned off the laundry room light and edged open the door. Outside, the hallway was dark, but she could hear the voices much clearer now.

“Do whatever you want to me, but I swear to the gods if you lay a finger on Sofia, it will be the end of you!”

Sofia’s breath hitched in her throat as Zaraq’s voice came echoing up the hall. Slowly, she peeked around the corner, her hand closing around the chisel as she did so. The only light was coming from the living room, spilling its warmth into the foyer and showing the silhouettes of four men. She could make out Vexis’s profile closest to her, his bald head round and stark against the light.

Her heart pounded as she gripped the chisel tighter, and she steeled herself. She had to take him down. She knew that. She wondered if the chisel was sharp enough to do any real damage, though. And what about the others?

Keeping her eyes trained on Vexis, she ran her finger across the tool’s edge. It was old and dull, scratchy with rust. She knew it would never work.

But she also knew she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try. With a deep breath, she stepped into the hallway, her bare feet still silent on the tiled floor.

That’s when she saw it.

On a small table in the hallway, a tasteful stone figure stared back at her. Some sort of angel, or at least the Rikuan equivalent. Its eyes seemed to gaze straight at her, but that was not what Sofia was looking at.

At the statue’s feet was a handbag. Even in the dark of the night, Sofia could see what color it was. Bright pink.

Chapter 18

Zaraq

Zaraq could feel his heart racing, his face growing hot, his hands trembling with rage. All concern for his own wellbeing had fallen away. Now, all that mattered was Sofia.

But with Vexis and his lackeys surrounding him on all sides, and his weapon snatched away, there was little he could do.

“Just let her go!” he shouted into Vexis’s face as a last-ditch attempt to save her. “She’s done nothing but what I asked of her. I’m the one you want!”

Vexis’s dark eyes creased at the corners as he laughed. “You’re not in a position to be making demands.”

Zaraq scowled, drawing himself up to his full height. This brought him a few inches taller than Vexis and he looked down at him with as much authority as he could muster, given the situation.

“I told you, I’m not playing your game.” His voice was low now, more controlled than it had been, even though a river of anger still coursed through him, just beneath the surface.

For a split second, Vexis’s veneer faltered, his eyes showing a brief flicker of doubt. But then he squared his shoulders, looking Zaraq dead in the eye.

The sound of crinkling plastic and several thuds drew Zaraq’s attention, and he saw out of the corner of his eye that Vexis was lifting and dropping the sigma blaster, feeling its weight.

“What if I just get rid of both of you then? If you’re not playing my games. Or better yet, I get rid of you, and your girlfriend becomes my own personal plaything.”